


Cold Reboot

by Databuffer



Category: Lost in Space (TV 2018)
Genre: Alien Culture, Alien/Human Relationships, Alternative Perspective, Baseless Conjecture on what goes on in the Robot's Head, Canon Compliant, Gen, Robot straight up tried to murder will, Robot/Human Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 11:45:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14472075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Databuffer/pseuds/Databuffer
Summary: “You’re dying… Aren’t you?” The human managed to punctuate its thoughts with ease that the robot found itself respecting. Now what would it do with the information? Kill it? Help it? Let it die? Oddly enough, none of the responses bothered it.The events of most of episode one, retold from the robot's perspective!





	Cold Reboot

_Critical error detected. Initiating diagnostic of core systems . . ._

_[Optical Relay]: Offline_

_[Tactile Sensors]: Online (Under Strain)_

_[Processor 1]: Offline_

_[Processor 2]: Offline_

_[Processor 3]: Offline_

_[Processor 4]: Not Found_

_[Processor 5]: Not Found_

_[Stabilizer Units]: Not Found_

_[Main Battery]: Offline_

_[Auxiliary Battery]: Online_

_[Weapons Systems]: Offline_

_Initiating system reboot. Standby . . ._

_[Optical Relay]: Online_

_[Tactile Sensors]: Online (Under Strain)_

_[Processor 1]: Online_

_[Processor 2]: Online_

_[Processor 3]: Online_

_[Processor 4]: Not Found_

_[Processor 5]: Not Found_

_[Stabilizer Units]: Not Found_

_[Main Battery]: Offline_

_[Auxiliary Battery]: Online_

_[Weapons Systems]: Online_

_Ai System reboot authorized. Initiating program . . ._

_Success. Restoring from latest iteration._

_Critical Error: Assignment not found._

_Contact a command outpost for assignment when most convenient for this unit._

_Critical Error: Memory Core has sustained severe damage._

_Report: Memory Hex 2 through 229 and 231 through 250 offline._

_Booting off Memory Hex 1, Memory Hex 230. Seek repairs when most convenient for this unit._

_**Unit Online** _

The robot came to. Optical sensors blinking into focus. Flickering through color channels as quickly as possible as it attempted to deem its current whereabouts.

Pain sensors activated on a delay, and the second they did, the robot collapsed. Limbs and head slamming into… something. A pained cry escaping it as it felt the feedback. It had been ripped in half, and impaled. The shrapnel painfully dug into its inner mechanisms. Every sensor around its midsection was ablaze. It turned off as many sensors as it could, in an attempt to allow some form of thought before the sheer amount of feedback sent its mind crashing into an overload.

73% of its sensors were disabled before the robot had finally regained the ability to properly think. Proper was incorrect. Damages were extensive. No orders were available. Memory Hexes were fragmented past any hope of access. It noted the absence of its lower body with something adjacent to disdain. Only 4 hours of battery life were available. Half of its main battery had been torn off with the removal of its legs. Unfortunate. It would need to reconnect quickly.

Its legs… where were its legs?

The robot sent out a ping, attempting to locate the rest of its body parts.

An entire 30 seconds later, they powered online, and returned the signal. It would be fruitless to attempt to control them from this far away, the signal would take too long to travel back to the ai, so instead, it remotely altered it. Supplying the legs, the core body coordinates, and setting it into a pathfinder mode. It waited for a successful ping back before it continued with its own self repair.

The robot reengaged optical sensors. It was in a tree… How? Insufficient data. Any attempt to access the most recent Memory Hex ended it in locking up completely, until it forcefully backed away, and canceled the command. Perhaps how didn’t matter at the current conjecture. It needed to get out.

The robot reached out with its arms. twelve fingers embedded themselves into the tree, and tried to pull the robot forwards. Deep gashes were left in the wood, but no progress. Futile. It shifted its approach. Grabbing the branch by the sides, and attempting to push itself off. Its claws dug into the branch once more. Carving channels into the flesh of it, but getting nowhere. Whatever angle it had been launched into the branch had been effective…

The robot tried to strain to look behind it, however its neck, and spinal strut were hardly developed with flexibility in mind. It could barely see anything over its own shoulder. Not that it would have mattered. All it could see was green foliage, and some blue sky. No evidence of where it had come from to get into this position.

It straightened itself, and lowered its arms. Slumping into the surface it was embedded on. Accepting there was nothing it could do until its legs arrived.

 

It fell into a standby mode. Most of its systems idling, while its ai powered down to its most base functions in hopes of conserving its meager available power as a contingency. It had no way to track the distance of its lower half, without draining resources it currently didn’t have to spare. Who knew how long it would be?

.

.

.

When the robot returned to consciousness, it was greeted with two things. One, its legs’ incessant pinging in request for reconnection, and a life form moving towards it. Without any consultant with the present AI, all systems moved to a combat state. Its arms raised, preparing to fire as the organic creature scrambled up towards it. Clearly to harm it. It had followed the legs here, and sought to put the unit out of functionality. It was clear.

Heat built in its hands, building upwards towards an apex, before it would-

_Critical Error: Insufficient Power. Weapon Charge Process halted._

Internally the robot stuttered. Genuine fear kindling for the first time since it had awoken. It watched the power dissipate from its hands, and fizzle away into nothing but heat. 40% of its battery power, wasted, by a reflex process. The robot’s processor hitched once more as it watched the being steadily approaching.

 

It was at the creature’s mercy.

No.

Incorrect.

In under two hours, the robot would go offline unless it could reconnect its primary battery. The robot glanced down to its legs. No damage – the creature was foolish to not destroy that part of it. All it needed to do was hold it at bay.

The robot lifted its claws once more. This time to give a slash at its limb, rather than a futile weapon blast. One of its arms flexed, and moved upwards, before slashing out. There was an unsatisfying slice. Piercing the fabric, but none of its organic body was split under its talons. It prepared. Rearing back to strike again, however hated.

 

In an instant, all hypothesis were shattered.

The creature let out a scream, and quickly moved away. The robot had done little more than shred its armor, and it was retreating.

“No! No!” The creature gasped out, lungs already struggling, even before the fight had begun, but that wasn’t the piece of information the robot’s processor clung to. Its language was in its database… an odd coincidence…

The robot surged forwards, Arms pulling itself towards the creature, in hopes it could put an end to it before it got a chance to devise a counter attack. Claws scrabbled against the branch. It was stuck. All movement was futile.

 The organic creature turned around once it reached the trunk of the tree, putting itself on proper display. Immediately the robot recognized the species. A common mistake of mixing up a species back for its front. Human. An organic mammalian species hailing from Earth. Technology thieves. Fragile, deceptive, but dangerous if allowed to reach groups of ten or more, a previously damaged Memory Hex provided as it was referenced. The creature spun quickly. Optical sensors dilated, and moving rapidly as they examined the robot, likely analyzing for a means to counter attack, while it was out of melee range.

It lowered its arms. Expressive cluster spinning rapidly. Saying nothing in particular, a flurry of mental activity but nothing more.

Perhaps incorrect. The human looked like it was debating running… Perhaps it was misreading its facial muscle displays incorrectly. Organics were all so similar, yet different… It made no advances. Neither did. Both silently observed one another. Curious. Uncertain of each other’s intentions.

In the lull of combat, the robot seized control of its legs, and positioned its lower half to reconnect. The second repair cables reached outwards, a response came back.

_Error: Linking target out of range. Try again once in position._

 

 

It was stuck.

.

.

.

 

Hours passed. The robot was unwilling to enter a standby mode to conserve power, with a potential danger so close by. Hours passed, and the robot found itself trusting the being slightly more, despite all logic. It trusted that it couldn’t flee, and that it wouldn’t move from its place backed against the tree if it could help it. It trusted enough to let its arms limply dangle from the branch, treasuring the meager fractions percentages of power, that letting them hang, without any machinery altering their position was saving. They equated to milliseconds, but they were valuable all the same. The robot allowed its head to fall into a similar state. Slumped downwards. Though all optical sensors were centered on the human all the same.

It watched in interest as the human once again moved for its wrist. The communicator device on it was easily intercepted by the robot. Scrambled, and incapable of reaching anyone, even if there happened to be someone in its limited range.

“Dad.”

There was that word again. A name? An acronym? Unknown.

“Dad, this is Will.” The creature, continued. The robot lifted its head once more. Array weakly pulsing. Claws lifting, and clicking down on themselves menacingly to remind the human that it was still very much willing to fight back if it tried anything. “Do you read me?” Once again, the robot scanned. Nothing. Its signal scrambler seemed to be working. Outbound signals would be useless, but inbound would remain intact. Perfect for gathering information on what other humans there might be…

“I’m kind of in a lot of danger here. Probably not as much danger as before, but definitely still in danger.” Before the robot’s idle processor had time to analyze those words, its own language rang out over the speaker.

A request for assistance, as it surmised, but it was so garbled. The robot found itself leaning forwards. Its array flickering to life in curiosity. Finding itself hoping that it would be on a continuous loop, and perhaps it could be cleaner next time. It sent a message. Its first attempt at communicating. ‘Do that again.’

Nothing. Silence. Disappointment.

“That noise, I’ve heard it before.” The human stated. “It’s coming from your ship isn’t it?” The robot feebly scanned the Memory Hexes it could still access. Nothing ship related was intact. Though being assigned a ship was a logical conclusion. How else would it have ended up wherever it currently was?

Memories rushed forwards on ship repair, an usage a moment late, from a corrupted hex. Well at least it knew how to get out of here, if it survived. It worked over the memories quickly, committing them to a quick access hex for later usage, only to be roused from inside its processor by movement from the human.

 

An unknown life form had landed on it. A winged insect of some sort, judging solely by appearances. The human seemed surprised by it, much to the curiosity of the robot. The human watched the much smaller organic creature in interest, while it remained. Was the human foreign to this planet as well? Before the robot had any time to truly think upon the subject, the small organic was moving towards it. Landing on one of its own talons. Apparently it was unaware of the sheer destruction the robot could cause. The being was chaos incarnate in combat, and yet this thing trusted the robot not to kill it – perhaps not? Its wings spiraled upwards into a bladelike point. A talon of its own. Fascinating.

No, it wasn’t that the insect didn’t fear the robot, it was that it knew it could defend itself. Incorrect, of course, the robot could destroy it in a single movement if it wished to expend the power. Burn it with a swift blast of heat, crush it with a hand faster than it could react to, or it could even stab it with its own claw, but the robot didn’t find any desire to prove it wrong.

It was strange how much it found itself trusting organics of all things. Distantly the robot chastised itself.

“I guess you’ve never seen anything like that either.” The human observed. The robot idly committed the fact to memory. Both were foreign. Aliens on this curious planet.

The insect flew off. The robot’s gaze trailed it, watching its flight pattern with interest. Fluttering, light. It reminded the robot of… something. The hex that contained the memory could provide nothing, other than the fact it was familiar. The interest passed.

_10% power remaining. Seek an alternative power source._

In an instant, the robot regretted moving, and disabled as many processes as it could get its metaphorical claws on. It moved swiftly. Putting itself in a state of minimal functionality. Trusting the human wouldn’t try anything at this point. Not that it exactly mattered at this point. It would be offline within the hour. It was unlikely it would be able to come back online after that.

It calmly considered, and accepted it would die today.

 

“My name’s Will Robinson, by the way.” The human stated.

The robot looked up in interest. Apparently, the trust went both ways. Will Robinson… it would remember the human who hadn’t tried to kill it, in its time of dying. It shut down the train of thought. Still wishing to conserve power. Power that constant computing, and conjecture consumed rapidly.

 

“Wait… whats happening to your lights?” The robot’s array flickered in minor surprise. It… hadn’t figured it out yet? For a moment, it hesitated. Contradicting its previous commands to limit computation, and calculating one last thing. What would it do with this information? Finish it off? Offer aid? Or do nothing? Humans were deceptive by nature, but apparently not Will Robinson. This one just sought to learn. It delved into the hex containing the data on humans. Its processor locking up for a painstaking moment.

It was a child…

 

The robot slowly moved its head, guiding the human child’s gaze towards its legs. Willing it to understand that it needed to reconnect to survive. That its battery was onboard those weak legs. Their own auxiliary power was sure to run out soon. If that happened… well, powering back on would be impossible anyway.

Once again it was confronted with the understanding it would die. Once again, the robot coldly accepted it. Processor sluggishly confirming, rather than granting the usual response to fight back for survival.

“You’re dying… Aren’t you?” The human managed to punctuate its thoughts with ease that the robot found itself respecting. Now what would it do with the information? Kill it? Help it? Let it die? Oddly enough, none of the responses bothered it.

.

.

.

Its consciousness flickered back onto itself, just in time to catch Will’s face alight with fear, and the source of it obvious. A fire raging. The fact it hadn’t noticed, a testament to its fleeting power.

It was going to die. Whether from running out of power, or having its insides burnt to a crisp somehow didn’t matter. Its tactile sensors where completely disabled at this point. Both would be soft and gentle ways to pass. And yet… Oddly, the robot felt some desire to spare the human. It wouldn’t be able to disable its pain. It was hard rooted in. Will would die screaming, burnt alive, and-

_2% power remaining. Seek an alternative power source._

.

.

.

It flickered once more. This time with little to no power available. It was running on fumes. Observing silently, unmoving, as the human lost hope. Will Robinson was calling out to ‘Dad’. The robot disabled the signal blocker, it was simply alone… Going to die without anyone knowing… It watched the human's sadness. The robot pooled its power once more into trying to connect, despite the understanding it was impossible.

Empathy was foreign. Watching the human running through its own thought process was… dreadful. Over the course of the intermittent hour, it had found itself caring about it. If… if it could just connect… neither would have to die.

_Error: Linking target out of range. Try again once in position._

The robot felt… anger. It flopped down once more.

Processor committing itself to hating its own inability to act before it shut itself off to conserve power.

No point now.

It resigned.

The human was breathing heavily.

Fear.

Acceptance.

Denial?

 

The human crawled towards it slowly. Drawing some type of serrated string.

It spoke. “No point in you dying too.” Its words passing through the robot without meaning, as its mind began caving in on itself, only to be revisited as it began carving through the log.

Disbelief.

Frantically it continued trying to connect.

_Error: Linking target out of range. Try again once in position._

_Error: Linking target out of range. Try again once in position._

_Error: Linking target out of range. Try again once in position._

It hit the ground with a thud

_Linking initiated . . . Please stand by._

The robot connected to the battery as quickly as it could. Its pieces linked together, and refilled in moments, drawing heat into itself to refuel. Processes surged back to life as its cables clicked into place, and its plating pressed back into itself. Healing.

Will Robinson.

The robot hurried the connection as quickly as it could. Returning itself to full functionality as its mind raced.

Will Robinson had saved it. It had no reason to do so, and yet it did? Perhaps it felt a similar form of empathy… Its plan still stood. The being would die slowly and painfully. It would be more merciless to end it with a laser blast – not that it even considered that as an option anymore. It ran over its words as its right hip actuator snapped back into alignment. It expected nothing in return… it likely wasn’t an act of deception. Just one act of good before it died. Facinating… was its log incorrect? The information had been pulled from a damaged Hex, perhaps it needed reevaluation…

_Memory Hex 251 created: Subject: Humans; Revised Observations._

_Memory Hex 252 created: Subject: Will Robinson._

Flames climbed over the robot’s prone form as its spinal strut clicked back into place. It was almost ready to move. Every part of the robot’s processor pleaded to nothing that the human was still alive, and urged the reconnection process to hurry. Pain sensors clicked back to life, and it could barely suppress a startled hiss. The heat seared its plating. Not deadly, now that there were no openings to its core, but uncomfortable all the same.

The left hip actuator snapped into place, and it climbed to its feet as quickly as possible. 6 pads pushed upwards off the ground. Pushing off of hot coals.

Will Robinson.

 

The human was staring down at it, in an unreadable expression. Fear? Joy? It couldn’t tell, but it wasn’t important. Will Robinson was alive, but still very much in danger. Without an ounce of further thought, the robot surged forwards. Climbing up the tree with ease, to scoop the human off the branch it was stranded on. Will Robinson clung to its chassis. The amount of trust the human had towards the robot was stunning, especially considered it had attempted to murder the creature. Though it likely lacked any other options. Something unfamiliar flooded through the robot’s systems, as it leaped off the tree. Holding the organic close, safely. Ensuring it wasn’t jostling it too much, or allowing it to get burned as it sprinted off. It didn’t know the extent to which humans were fragile. Hexes offered nothing on the subject.

 

As the robot ran, bringing the human as far from harms way as it could, it thought upon its new assignment. It was self imposed, but important all the same. It needed to display its gratitude. It needed to learn more. It needed to figure out all that it could about the humans as a species, first hand. Not from some damaged Memory Hex. It needed to know more. But… that would make it its own commander… no, no. That felt wrong in every circuit of its being. Could… Will Robinson fill the role? It was odd… it didn’t like the idea of an alien holding such an honored position… but who else was there? It would certainly be a way to return the favor, and display gratitude…

 

It updated the hex. Adding Will Robinson’s new rank

.

.

.

The robot scrambled up a cliffs face with ease. Three arms, and six feet found purchase easily, even when the rock broke under its footing. One hand dug into a narrow crag, another grabbing onto an exposed root, while its feet settled upon exposed ridges.

Will Robinson was hyper ventilating in its arms. Why? It wasn’t experiencing physical exertion. It was being carried…

The machine shifted. Moving more of its feet onto a stable ridge. The root was ripped out of the wall, Will Robinson let out  a startled yelp, and clung tighter, even as the other nine limbs held the being steady. The robot dug its claws into the opening the root had provided, and looked down at the human. Pushing the creature away from its chest to get a better look.

The human clung tighter, chanting a quick mantra of “No, no, no, no!” The robot halted immediately. Stilling, and tilting its head as it attempted to get a better angle. Its cluster shifting to curiosity.

“Please don’t drop me!” The human begged. The robot didn’t move in the slightest. The being was hyper ventilating more. Was it okay? Was this a sign of injury? There was no visible blood, or breaks in its suit, aside from where the robot had attempted to attack it… Why..?

A hex on mammalian organic life surged forth. Filling its mind with understanding. It was fear. Oxygen was being pulled in quickly to provide power to the muscles, in preparation to either fight, or flee. Well, the request not to be dropped made more sense now… Carefully the robot placed one of its hands on the human’s chest. Hoping in some way Will Robinson would be soothed by it.

It stopped breathing.

It was still alive, just staring upward at the robot.

It was an improvement for a moment, but it swiftly returned to its quick inhales and exhales.

 

 

The robot gave up, and kept on climbing. The human seeming to calm, as they reached higher elevation. Perhaps there was a correlation? Silently it put the fact into its newly made hex, for further testing.

The robot continued climbing. Shifting the human from one lower arm to the other as it continued its climb. The burning woods were far behind them now, the robot moved with unparalleled speed, but it simply didn’t want either of them to be near anything flammable at the moment. It saw glaciers in the distance. That would be ideal. No chances of the fire spreading, or catching that far.

Seven hand and foot holds later, it was pulling itself up onto the plateau of the cliff. A nice, flat surface where the human could be safely put down on, without sustaining injury. It was colder up here… For a moment it debated if the being would freeze, but set it down all the same. Arm releasing the human carefully, once its two feet found purchase.

It moved away quickly. Watching the robot closely as it clawed its way to standing there as well.

Finally it could get a good look, and good data without the worries of low power, or contaminated feedback. A perfect observation was finally possible. Bipedal – it hadn’t noticed that part before. Two arms, and a face. It was small in stature, barely coming up to its own chest. So frail – but it was a child. Organics grew larger usually, though there was the potential for it to be a smaller subspecies… The information provided by that hex had been wrong before.

The robot stepped forwards towards the human, claw outstretched. Something shifted in it. An odd desire to conform, as the human looked up at it. Its hand abandoned its initial task to better examine its face, and instead trailed downwards. Scanning the muscle and bone structure.

Something shifted physically this time. Right… it could conform.

It used to bone structures as a blue print. Two arms, two legs. Neck straight up, rather than outwards. Back less hunched… Metal began shifting inside of it. Its internals rearranging, as its externals altered to fit a new requirement.

 

Its arms intertwined, claws linking together – it would miss the dexterity. Legs wound together, three becoming one on every side. Its center of balance shifted, as its back straightened. Spikes along its back shifting to lay flat, as its shoulder armor packed downwards. All the while the human started upwards unreadably. It wished for confirmation, but none came. Its commander hadn’t yet realized its role. Soon enough it would. The last of it clicked into place, and its form felt foreign. It lacked its dexterity, and stability, but it was stronger now… more importantly, it conformed to the human.

The robot stared awaiting orders.

After three minutes of the human staring in shock and awe, it spoke,

“M-my sister is in trouble.” The robot’s array pulsed in confirmation, and expressed a desire for more details.

“Dad left me in the woods to go help her, and… if she’s still stuck, I need to help.” The robot shifted its array, once again asking for more details, this time with more pressure. The human spoke after another minute of silence.

“I… I don’t know if you still want to help, or if you can talk, or… understand me at all, but… If you do, then come with me. I can take us there.”

The robot pulsed its array, confirming one last time, before taking a step forward expectantly.

Will Robinson’s face shifted. Bearing its teeth for a brief moment, before letting out its first proper order.

“Right then. Follow me.”

**Author's Note:**

> Idk if I wanna turn this into a series or not? Its just I've watched the first episode 4 times now, between watching it on my own, and with other people, and wanted to explore what could have possibly been going on in the robot's head in this scene, along with a couple gap fills I felt were fitting. 
> 
> If this is well received, I may write more episodes from the robot's perspective, or maybe just select scenes.  
> Either way, hope you enjoyed ^^
> 
> Oh, one other thing, I was debating writing an AU fic where John ends up being the one getting a robot who obeys his every command. I feel like it would be interesting, but I want to gauge my audience first. So how do you feel on that? Anything else you'd rather see?


End file.
